“Invites will be sent to a large group of new PTS testers, but if you participated in the ESO: Morrowind PTS beta last year, you’ll be able to log into the Summerset PTS from the ESO launcher yourself, no invite required! Just don’t forget to enable ‘Show Public Test Environment’ from your launcher settings. Note that as always, anybody can install the PTS client, log in, and test the base game changes, but they won’t be able visit Summerset or experience any of the new Chapter’s features unless granted access.”

Do note that the main quest and story are under a strict NDA (agreement, watermarked screenies, the works) that lifts May 1st.

MOP’s Andrew and Eliot got hands-on with the chapter at GDC and PAX respectively, both of them finding it to be basically exactly what Elder Scrolls Online fans want and expect out of a big content dump.

The #Summerset Chapter and Update 18 are coming to the #ESO Public Test Server on PC/Mac this month!

Not really sure what benefit for me there is to testing this time. Morrowind was useful because you could get a feel for the new class before deciding whether to level one up or not. But Summerset Isle only really has a skill line, which you will get anyways and then its just content.

I appreciate others will want to learn the new content, but I’d rather wait until launch to experience such things.

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1 year ago

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Tandor

You select Test under “Games” on the left side of the launcher. Once it’s updated the test client then you hit “Play” in the usual way.

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1 year ago

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Tandor

As with all beta tests, the problem is in separating the genuine testers from those who simply want at best to get a headstart on others, and at worst to find (but not report) anything they can exploit when it goes live. I don’t think that restricting invites is likely to succeed in that respect. Then again, given that most testers state that the bugs and other issues they submit in beta still make it through to live, I’m not convinced that betas serve any real purpose these days beyond adding to the marketing hype.

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1 year ago

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Polyanna

If you participated in the ESO: Morrowind PTS beta last year, you’ll be able to log into the Summerset PTS from the ESO launcher yourself, no invite required!

I assume that this is at least in part because it was more work than they felt like doing to revoke access to the PTS for people who already had it. But whatever the reason, it’s nice for a change to see a developer say that if you participated in a previous beta you were invited to, then you’re automatically in for the next one, no questions, and no need to wait on an invite through some bullshit “lottery.” Nice to see that players who bothered to take up the invitation to test are rewarded by a “free” invite to the next test.